Montag, 18. Juni 2012

Stanford Financial Group's top investment executive, Laura
Pendergest-Holt, is expected to plead guilty to obstruction of
justice Thursday for her alleged role in a $7 billion Ponzi
scheme that was among the largest frauds in U.S. history, a
person familiar with the case said.

That punishment amounts to a life sentence for Mr.
Stanford, 62 years old, who for years enjoyed the life of a billionaire
aboard jets, yachts and in homes around the globe.

He remains in federal custody until the U.S. Bureau of Prisons decides where he will serve the time.

Laura Pendergest-Holt

A Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in U.S.
District Court in Dallas had alleged that Ms. Pendergest-Holt misled
Securities and Exchange Commission investigators who took
her testimony in the probe of alleged fraud at Stanford International
Bank, Mr. Stanford's Antigua-based offshore bank.

Donnerstag, 14. Juni 2012

R. Allen Stanford, the once-highflying financier convicted of
masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced Thursday
to 110 years in federal prison.

The punishment amounts to an effective life sentence for
Stanford, who is 62 years old and used to live extravagantly aboard
yachts, jets and homes around the world.

"I didn't run a Ponzi scheme, I didn't defraud anybody and there was never any intent to defraud anybody," Stanford,
wearing a green prison jumpsuit, told US District Court Judge David Hittner before he was sentenced.

In a rambling statement, marked with long pauses as he choked up and wiped away tears, Stanford
accused the government of using "Gestapo tactics" and blamed it for the billions of dollars in losses to his investors.

Stanford's sentence was 40 years less than the prison term
given to Bernard Madoff, but 100 years more than his lawyers had
asked for.

The sentence ends the three-year criminal prosecution of
Stanford, who in March was convicted by a federal jury on 13 of 14
counts including fraud, obstructing investigators and
conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Though investors continue to seek hundreds of millions of
dollars from Stanford in a civil proceeding, the end of the criminal
case closes a chapter on one of the most flamboyant figures in
the annals of white-collar crime.